


The Kid

by naomin



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bad Parenting, Canonical Character Death, Childhood, Gen, Harm to Children, Stuttering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-04-30 23:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5183681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naomin/pseuds/naomin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenny hadn't expected this, but he's getting the hang of it, more or less.  </p>
<p>Some loosely connected drabbles about Kenny and Levi's past.  Reposted from Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a repost of some stuff I wrote a long time ago, and some stuff that's a little more recent. Maybe to be continued, if I get any other ideas.
> 
> Contains big spoilers for Levi's past, childhood trauma, and well-intentioned(???????) but terrible approaches to child-rearing.

 

There isn’t a whole lot to talk about in the beginning.  The details might still be a little unclear, but the basic facts of the matter are as unavoidable as a good kick to the teeth – the filthy room, the body cold on the bed,  the dead-eyed brat crouched in the corner.  Kenny doesn’t really care to know more about what’s taken place than what he guess from that, and it’s a good thing, because even if he did want to talk about it for some reason, he’d be more or less out of luck.  It’s obvious that Kuchel hasn’t had anything to say for herself for a while, and the smirking scumbag of a pimp who had first pointed Kenny in her direction takes the news of Kenny’s discovery a little too much in stride.  

The kid – Levi – keeps his mouth shut when Kenny comes back after talking to the pimp, though he watches Kenny like a hawk from across the room while Kenny tries to decide whether or not he should wait around until the remains have been taken away.  He doesn’t say a word until the blanket-wrapped corpse is getting carried out the door – it happens so quickly that Kenny doesn’t have time to decide about staying or leaving, something of a relief - and then he just screams.

He tries to at the men carrying his mother, but his legs are slow and wobbly with starvation and disuse, and Kenny catches him easily before he can get in their way.  Levi screams and screams, a high-pitched, raspy wail that makes the hair stand up on the back of Kenny’s neck.  It’s the only sound in the room.  The men charged with dealing with the body exchange uncomfortable looks.  

“Hey!” Kenny hisses.  “That’s enough, kid.”  It’s child’s play for him to keep a grip on Levi – calling the boy skin and bones would be almost too generous – but Levi puts up an admirable fight anyway.  

“She has to go,” Kenny tries to explain to him.  “She’s gone.  Stop yelling.”  Levi stops long enough to try to bite at Kenny’s arm, but he has to try to twist around for it, and the angle is bad enough that all Kenny gets is rotting baby teeth brushing at his sleeve.  There’s a hell of a headache building up in the front of Kenny’s skull.  He’s not sure whether it’s from all of Levi’s noise – the kid’s at it again now, back to yelling wordlessly even as it’s clear that his throat’s getting raw and his lungs are starting to protest the sudden overuse – or from the simple fact that he had been ready to see Kuchel for the first time in years less than an hour ago, and now his sister’s getting hefted out the door in a blanket, and his nephew’s working himself into useless hysterics in his arms. 

Levi quiets as soon as the body is out of sight, slumping in Kenny’s hold as abruptly as if he’s been punched in the gut.  After a moment Kenny lets him go, poised in case Levi gets it into his head to give running out the door or turning on Kenny another shot, but the kid just huddles back down into the same miserable ball that he’s been in for most of the time Kenny’s seen him.  

A couple of the men who had helped remove Kuchel’s remains are back in the room now, cleaning up, though there isn’t much to clean.  They don’t pay any attention to Kenny, or Levi.  “What about him?”  Kenny asks.    

“What?”

“Does he have someplace he can go?”  Kenny tries again hopefully, even though he can already guess what the answer will be. No child with someone to take care of them could have ended up in the state that Levi’s in.

Sure enough, all he gets are indifferent shrugs.  “Thought he was with you,” someone says.

“He’s…” Kenny trails off, looking down at Levi.  His first instinct had been vehement denial, because he hadn’t even been aware of Levi’s _existence_ before today, and Kenny’s ludicrously unsuited for being responsible for a kid, especially one that’s half-dead and maybe half-crazy as well.  

But still, this isn’t just any kid.  Kenny can see a faint shadow of how he remembers Kuchel many years ago in the boy’s sunken features, for all that it might be nothing more than wishful thinking. (Honestly, in Levi’s present condition he bears a certain resemblance to his mother exactly as she is _now_ , as well, though that’s an unpleasant thought even for a man like Kenny.)  

What the hell.  Kenny’s probably done stupider things before.  “Yeah, okay,” he says.  He looks down at the floor, where Levi’s lifted his head to stare up at him suspiciously.  He hadn’t cried at all earlier, just yelled his head off, but his eyes are red and watery, and startlingly intense.  When he had first laid eyes on Levi, Kenny had thought that the kid looked about an hour away from going the same way as Kuchel, but now he’s reconsidering.  Levi looks angry – angry at Kenny, angry at the others, angry at the world, Kenny doesn’t know.  But he does know that anger and even pain can be just much of a reason to stay alive as anything, and even though they’ve only barely met, he’s pretty sure that Levi has both in abundance.  

“C’mon.”  Kenny reaches down and takes Levi’s clammy, dirty hand in his.  He braces himself for resistance, but to his surprise, Levi lets himself be pulled to his feet and tugged towards the door without a fuss.  

As they leave, Kenny can’t resist pausing to look over his shoulder, even though he knows that any signs of his sister’s existence that might have been there at one point are already gone.  Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Levi’s just looking sullenly at the ground.

They pass others on the way out, but nobody seems too concerned to see Levi getting led away by a strange man, which is probably for the best, since Kenny doesn’t know what he would say if someone demanded an explanation from him. Holding Levi’s hand feels utterly unnatural, but Kenny doesn’t fully trust Levi to follow him or even to keep moving at all of his own accord, so he keeps his grip on Levi’s hand all the way back to the inn.  

At the inn, Levi only opens his mouth long enough to gobble down the food he’s given, spending the rest of the time in wary silence. It’s fine, as far as Kenny’s concerned. Levi’s had a hell of a day, after all, and Kenny doesn’t know how to talk to kids anyway. So he contents himself with prodding Levi through the motions of living, getting him a bath and a change of clothes. (One of the innkeeper’s children is more or less Levi’s size, as luck would have it.) When it starts to get dark, and Kenny shoos him into bed, Levi just sits on top of the blankets in the same way that he had sat on the floor earlier, clean and somewhat more presentable but still every bit as wretched-looking. Kenny leaves him be.

He’s a little surprised, though, when he passes by the room a few hours later and sees Levi not just still awake but out of bed, pressed against the doorframe and clearly working up the nerve to venture outside.

“Go to sleep, kid,” Kenny orders.

Levi shifts on his feet, brow furrowed. His mouth opens, and then closes again.

“What?”

Levi’s frown deepens, lips working silently as if he’s chewing on air. _Huh_ , Kenny thinks.

“ _Ba_ -“ Levi spits out. “Ba-a, _bathroom_.”

“Down the hall on the right.” Kenny points, and watches after Levi as the boy scurries off with an air of tangible relief. When Levi reappears a few minutes later, he eyes the way away from Kenny and out of the building rebelliously for a few seconds, but trudges back towards the bedroom in the end. _Smart kid_. Levi knows that his best bet is to go along with Kenny for now, that it’s safer to bet on the strange man who gives him food and new clothes than to be alone on the streets in his current state.

Not much later, Kenny's ready to turn in for the night himself.  Levi's still awake, following Kenny with his eyes all over the room. 

"Go to sleep," Kenny says one more time, for good measure. 

Levi doesn't answer, not even with one or two more stuttered words.  Kenny takes the blankets out from underneath him and makes himself comfortable on the floor.  He can see Levi out of the corner of his eye, hunched on top of the bed like a crow perched in a dead tree, until he finally falls asleep.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

In the beginning, Kenny thinks that the way Levi talks is just the result of everything that’s happened, just like the way you can count every one of his ribs or the way he never sleeps straight through the night.  The stutter will go away, he assumes, with time.  But Levi’s been with him for a good month now, living the most comfortable life that people like them can reasonably expect, and there’s been no change at all so far.  

It doesn’t feel like that big of a problem, in all honesty.  Levi usually doesn’t talk very much at all, part of what makes him so easy to keep around – seen and not heard, and all that shit, and Kenny can usually get a pretty good idea of what’s going through Levi’s head even when he’s being quiet.  But it does turn into a pain on the rare occasions when Kenny really does need Levi to explain himself clearly.  It’s also one of the many qualities that make Levi an all-around seriously weird little kid, and it’s attracted comments here and there.  

“It’s simple,” one of Kenny’s business contacts asserts confidently one night, as they’re in the middle of making a couple of unfortunate marks as unrecognizable as possible before their bodies can be dumped.  It’s tedious work, and the conversation has aimlessly turned to Levi, who’s currently snoozing behind a tree a little ways away.  

“You’ve just gotta show him you mean business, that’s all,” the man continues. “Like, no food, not unless he can ask for it right.” 

“Huh.”  Kenny considers it.  Levi’s nowhere near starvation these days, but he still wolfs down every crumb of each meal as if it’s his first time eating in a week.  Every bit of Levi’s food comes courtesy of Kenny, and if there’s anything that could give the boy a nudge, Kenny’s pretty sure that would be it, but…   “Don’t know about that.”

Kenny’s contact pauses in the middle of cutting a ring off a finger to wave his knife scoldingly in Kenny’s direction.  “That’s it!  You’re too easy on him, I’m telling you.  As soon as he knows you’re serious he’ll shape right up, guarantee it.  It’s what my old man used to do when I was his age. Didn’t kill me to miss a few meals when I’d fucked up, and I turned out all right in the end – oh, _there_ we go!”

The dead man’s finger has given away at last, and on closer inspection, the ring turns out to look valuable enough to put Levi out of their minds. Kenny finds himself remembering the suggestion later, however.  He has his doubts – hunger isn’t something that brings out the best in people, in Kenny’s own experience – but on the other hand, it’s true that so far Kenny’s been more tolerant of Levi than a lot of other people would be, and it can’t hurt to give it a try.  

“What do you want?” he asks Levi the next day, as they’re waiting outside a food stall.  

Levi points at a pile of thick, soft-looking slabs of bread expectantly. He’d gotten a rare solid night’s sleep while Kenny had taken care of business the night before, and morning has found him alert and in as good of a mood as he can be.  

“What?” Kenny asks again.

Levi points again, more emphatically.

“What?”

Levi frowns.  He’s realized that there’s something going on here, even if he’s maybe not quite sure yet exactly what Kenny’s trying to achieve.  His mouth works silently, impatiently, for a few seconds before he finally able to spit out “ _Bread_.”

One word – more of a response than Levi often gives for an easy question like this – but Kenny knows that he should probably expect a little more.  “Is that how you ask for something?”  Traffic at the stall has died down a little, and Kenny takes the opportunity to step forward and buy his own breakfast.  Levi scowls at him, rebelliously silent.

“Tell me,” Kenny says.  “Ask for it, and do a good job, and you can have it.”  He waves his own bread encouragingly.  

Levi understands completely now, and Kenny hasn’t had such a glare directed at him since he kept Levi from following after Kuchel’s corpse.  His lips are pressed into a tight line.  

“‘I want bread,’” Kenny prompts, adding as an afterthought. “’Please’.” It’s good for kids to practice their manners, he supposes.  

Levi turns away from him, brow furrowed.  They’re starting to attract a little attention, not to mention holding up the other customers.  “Fine,” Kenny says at last.  He starts off down the street, taking a bite of bread as he goes.  After a long moment, Levi stalks after him.

Levi’s crabby for hours, and even less sociable than usual.  Kenny finds himself feeling a little bad, before he realizes how unnecessary that is.  A missed breakfast isn’t the end of the world - hell, Levi’s lucky that he’s crossed paths with Kenny during a time when Kenny’s doing well enough to spare him anything at all.  Kenny really _has_ been dangerously soft when it comes to Levi – it’s the nephew thing, maybe, Kenny’s never met any other children in his family, so he hadn’t thought to expect something like this – and it’s for Levi’s own good to put an end to that as soon as possible.

Hunger, or possibly the hope that Kenny’s forgotten about the events of the morning, makes Levi sweeten somewhat when it’s time for lunch.  He sticks to Kenny’s side like glue, eyeing the food Kenny starts to pull out of his bag hopefully.  

“Want some?” Kenny asks unnecessarily.  

This time, Levi’s face doesn’t darken so much as close up entirely, just from that little bit of urging alone.  He slides away from Kenny without another look, utterly silent. It’s obvious that nothing’s going to be accomplished this time, so Kenny ends up eating by himself in awkward silence, while Levi stares at the ground a little ways away.  

Even though food doesn’t come up again, Levi shrinks away bit by bit throughout the afternoon, in a way that Kenny finds frankly a bit alarming.  He hadn’t really appreciated how far Levi has come until all the progress starts to disappear, and Levi starts to look more and more like the sullen, feral, half-dead child Kenny had first picked up from the brothel.  

He doesn’t try to ask for something to eat again, not even wordlessly, and he doesn’t try to enact any kind of payback on Kenny for the way he’s being treated.  Levi follows him around as usual, waits where he’s told to wait and doesn’t get in the way, but he’s listless in a way that’s probably partly hunger, but also feels a lot like resignation in a way that leaves a decidedly bad taste in Kenny’s mouth. Getting serious is fine enough, he thinks, but what’s he supposed to do now that Levi seems to have decided to just lie down and give up?  Not spoiling Levi, family or no, is fine enough, but what’s he supposed to do with the unpleasant certainty lurking in the back of his brain that his sister, the one he’s doing all of this for in the first place, wouldn’t be happy with this at all?

They’re staying at an inn that night – Kenny’s meeting another contact regarding another job there – and Kenny’s privately both impressed and a little unsettled to notice that Levi doesn’t even try to get food on his own, not even when the old lady who owns the inn indulgently offers him a piece of candy.  It’s a rare luxury even under normal circumstances – Kenny’s had no problem with keeping Levi fed, but treats are typically out of the question – but Levi just gives Kenny an unreadable look out of the corner of his eye and gives his head a little shake.  The man from the other night had been wrong about at least one thing, Kenny thinks. Even if Kenny has let him get away with some things until now, Levi definitely understands what it means when someone gets serious with him.  

The meeting requires Kenny’s attention for most of the evening, but by the time it’s over, Kenny’s firmly resolved to give up, at least for today.  Even if Levi’s stutter is something that he can control with enough effort, it’s obvious that Kenny will have to use a different approach.  He has no idea how things have gone so badly – he’s underestimated the impact of Levi’s time without food before his mother’s body was discovered, perhaps, or there could very well be some other past trauma that Kenny’s tapped into without realizing – but things can’t go on like this.  

It’s late, and Kenny’s ready to eat something himself, but when he looks for Levi, he’s nowhere to be seen.  Every corner of the inn is bustling with activity – it’s crowded but not too seedy, a good place to arrange a bit of business if you can keep your head down - and nobody has any memory of seeing Levi for at least the last hour or so.

Kenny’s first thought is that the boy’s run away, left him for good – he’s not entirely sure how that idea makes him feel – but then he remembers one more place he hasn’t checked.  

The place they’re staying is between two cities, surrounded by gentle hills dotted with farms or houses here and there.   When Kenny and Levi had arrived earlier, Kenny had noticed some of the other guests’ children gathered around a hutch in the yard in the back, cooing over the pink noses and delicate, soft, ears of the rabbits inside.

The other children hadn’t seemed to realize that the rabbits were almost certainly just biding their time until the stewpot, but Levi, of course, has no such illusions.  Kenny finds him out back with a soft, white, body limp in his hands.  

“Levi!” Kenny calls out to him, just catching himself from adding _what the fuck are you doing over there?_ Surely Levi hadn’t thought that he could somehow prepare and eat a fucking rabbit on his own outside in the dark, had he?  When there’s plenty of things to eat inside already, even if Kenny might notice him?  Kenny’s going to have to teach him to steal like a normal person as soon as possible.  

Levi starts with his whole body, shoulders hunching warily, grip tightening on the dead rabbit.  (That’s another thing that Kenny can’t quite wrap his head around yet - Levi killed a rabbit all on his own, with those fingers that still seem as small and weak as a bird’s bones?)  He glares up at Kenny, eyes bitter and suspicious.

“Come on,” Kenny says briskly.  He doesn’t have the slightest clue how to address the present situation, so he keeps it simple:  “Let’s eat.”

Levi’s gaze gets even more suspicious, but at least it’s a step up from his earlier dead-eyed look.

“Put that thing down and come on.  I’m hungry.”

“It’s m-muh, _mine_ ,” Levi answers cagily, the first time Kenny’s heard him talk in almost the entire day.  

“What the fuck are you going to do with it?”  Rose and Sina, what a fucking handful.  Kuchel had never been so stubborn as a child, Kenny’s positive. Kenny can sense without a doubt that Levi would have tried to eat the rabbit on his own, one way or another, if Kenny hadn’t interrupted.  “You can have something better.  Real food. Come on.”  

Levi hesitates for about a second.  Then he sets the rabbit on the grass with startling care, gets to his feet, and follows Kenny.  

Levi downs two big bowls of soup and three slices of bread.  He’s in such a good mood that he even tolerates the innkeeper fussing over him, smiling shyly as she exclaims about how good his appetite is, what a healthy boy he is.  

When Kenny cuts him off – the last thing Kenny wants to deal with at this point today is  Levi making himself sick – he frowns, but drops his spoon obediently.  

“You can have more tomorrow,” Kenny says.  He’s found himself without much of an appetite of his own, in the end.  He isn’t entirely sure what kind of meat is in the soup, but he can’t shake the image of bony fingers scrabbling in white fur, grimly decisive, out of his mind.  Levi beams.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Levi’s good in a fight, it turns out.  He can move fast enough that his little body becomes an advantage, an impossible target, and before long he can hold his own against boys almost twice his age, with very little training or encouragement from Kenny necessary at all. 

Whatever Levi can take off the people he beats is his to keep, and Kenny can see him gaining more and more confidence with each win, each new prize - candy, a pocketful of coins, a hat or a jacket, even.  One day, Kenny notices him playing with a knife.  It’s flimsy, ornamental junk, taken off of some noble’s brat, most likely, but Kenny gets Levi a better one and Levi turns out to be a natural with that, as well.

One day, they’re out on the street when a man a little ways away catches Kenny’s eye.  The man’s dressed like he’s decently rich - a merchant, maybe, and he’s middle-aged and a little portly, with no weapon in sight as far as Kenny can see.  The cherry on top: he’s about to head off alone down a side street, one that Kenny knows is rarely used at this time of day and hard to see or hear from the main road. 

Kenny gives Levi a nudge, jerking his chin minutely in the rich man’s direction.  “Hey.”

Levi gets the idea perfectly and stares up at Kenny, eyes wide.  He looks a little unsure, but Kenny doesn’t miss how his body is already tensed, ready to spring into action. 

“You can do it,” Kenny encourages him.  It’s the first time that he’s asked something like this of Levi, but he’s pretty sure that Levi’s already moved up to bigger targets once or twice on his own by now, and this man looks as if he’ll be no trouble at all.  “If you don’t, someone else will, I guarantee it.”

Levi gives a little nod, confident now, and starts off towards the alley that the rich man’s just disappeared down, weaving smoothly in and out of the crowd.

Kenny watches him until he’s out of sight, feeling thoroughly satisfied.  He’ll take a cut of whatever Levi brings back - this isn’t just kid’s stuff anymore, after all - but he knows that Levi won’t complain about it.  This could be the start of something very lucrative, if Kenny plays his cards right.  Kenny hasn’t been too concerned with this kind of petty robbery for a while, but having Levi like some noble’s trained hawk at his side, waiting to be sent out to hunt at his command, isn’t unwelcome at all.

A child’s scream comes floating up from the direction of the alley, faint and almost unnoticeable over the noise of the bustling crowd.  Even the best trained hawk can run into problems.  Kenny groans, and heads towards the sound. 

Kenny and Levi had underestimated the rich man, it turns out.  When Kenny catches up to Levi he finds him dangling from the man’s grip, face covered in tears and snot and knife lying uselessly on the ground.  

The man looks up when Kenny gets close and starts to open his mouth, probably to ask for his help dealing with the would-be thief, but he never gets a chance to speak.  Kenny sees to that with his own knife, stabbing the man once in the stomach and then, before he can scream but after Levi can wriggle away, slitting his throat.

“What the hell, Levi?” Kenny hisses.  This is a rude jolt from the easy way things had been only a few minutes before, and Kenny’s in a foul mood.  There’s no neat way to deal with the body now, in the middle of the day with plenty of people only a short distance away, and it’s a pain in the ass that all of the sudden they’re going to have to clear out of this part of town, at least for the time being.  At least neither Kenny nor Levi have any of the man’s blood on them.  This is, Kenny thinks in irritation, a perfect illustration of why he doesn’t usually do this kind of thing these days. Maybe he shouldn’t have encouraged Levi, or maybe he should have waited instead of killing the man, at least. Well, there’s no fixing things now.

Levi’s still crying.  Kenny’s pretty sure that it’s surprise more than pain – Levi can be almost creepily stoic on the rare occasions that he comes out the worse in a fight - though on closer inspection, Levi’s would-be target appears to have been able to rough him up pretty well in the short time it took for Kenny to arrive.  One of his eyes is starting to swell, and he’s cradling his right hand in his left.  Kenny grabs Levi’s knife off the ground for him, grabs his shirt with his other hand, and hauls them both out of there as quickly and inconspicuously as he can.

When they’re a safe distance away from both the body and any potential witnesses, Kenny examines Levi’s hand.  The rich man had been downright vicious.  Two of Levi’s fingers are broken.  Kenny tears strips of fabric from Levi’s shirt and binds them tight – Levi screams his head off until he’s finished – and contents himself with the thought that killing the man had been at least a slightly more appropriate response than it had seemed at first.  

Even when Levi finally stops crying, he’s still too hurt and wound up to be good for much of anything, including moving about without attracting unwelcome attention.  Kenny makes him drink the end of a bottle of cheap wine he’s been saving, a belated measure against pain.  It seems to do the trick, leaving Levi subdued and a little loopy.  All he does for the rest of the blessedly uneventful day is trail after Kenny, talking even less than usual.  He spends a lot of time staring curiously at his bandaged hand. “It happens.  You’ll be good as new in no time,” Kenny says, trying to cheer him up.  Kenny, for his own part, is feeling better now, especially as hours pass and there’s no sign that the dead man on the other side of the city is anything to worry about yet.  

When night starts to fall, Levi’s still unusually docile, almost babyish. Kenny’s not sure if he’s still drunk, or just worn out.  When he falls behind one too many times, Kenny finally gives in and picks him up, the same kid he’d sent out to rob a man not half a day earlier.  It’s a good thing that Levi’s still small for his age, at least.

The wine has another effect.  After he’s been carried for a while, Levi needs to pee.  There’s a public outhouse only a little ways back, so Kenny sets him down and waits as he hurries off, fading into a crowd for the second time that day.  He doesn’t think anything of it – even though Levi’s not at his best tonight, Kenny doesn’t think the kid’s going to do anything stupid or let anyone mess with him in the short while it’ll take for him to do his business and return.  

A few minutes pass, then ten, then twenty, and Levi doesn’t return, of course.  When Kenny tries to retrace his steps, he realizes that they’re right next to a seedy-looking entertainment district.  Kenny wants Levi to have ended up almost anywhere else, but he’s not that optimistic a man, so he heads in.  It has been, he finds himself thinking, a very fucking long day.  

Kenny’s utterly unremarkable among most of the other people in this neighborhood, but it doesn’t take long for a man alone to attract a certain kind of attention.  As luck would have it, the first woman who sidles up to him has seen Levi not too long before, heading into a nearby brothel.  He seemed to have been going of his own accord, which is good to hear, if rather confusing.  Levi’s many years too young to have any interest in that kind of thing, Kenny had thought.  

He finds Levi in one of the rooms, sitting on the bed.  There’s another child next to him – a toddler, really – and both kids are drinking something out of mugs almost too big for them to lift.  Levi looks utterly at peace.  

When Kenny steps into the room, the woman who’s doing her makeup in a mirror on the other side of the room turns around, surprised.  Kenny starts to understand why Levi’s ended up here. This woman isn’t a perfect match at all, but she has long, dark hair and her face is close enough, especially if, perhaps, you’re looking up from about the height of her elbow.  

“Come on, Levi,” Kenny says.  

All he gets in response is a blank stare, not that he had really expected much else.  

“Is he yours?”  the woman asks.

Kenny spares her a quick, impatient glance.  He’s ready to be out of here – maybe Levi’s enjoying his surroundings, for some incomprehensible reason, but Kenny’s not finding that he appreciates them very much.  “Yeah. He’s with me.”

The woman gives him a look that Kenny supposes is understandable, all things considered.  Levi, with his bruised face, bandaged fingers, and still-ripped shirt, is an even more pathetic sight than usual at the moment.  “Is that right?” the woman asks.  Levi nods agreeably, mug balanced unsteadily between his good and bad hands.

“Come _on_ , Levi,” Kenny says again.

Levi’s expression gets decidedly less agreeable.  “ _No_ ,” he whines.

“We’ve got business to take care of,” Kenny tells him.  “The lady does too.  It’s time to go.”  

Levi pouts in a way completely unbecoming of someone who happily goes after grown men with knives, but the look in his eyes is just as determined as when he had headed off down the alley earlier.  

It would be pretty easy to just grab the kid and carry him outside, Kenny knows.  Levi’s not yet ready to beat _Kenny_ in a struggle, even under the best of circumstances, and his size would be, once again, helpful.  Levi would do his best to raise hell on the way out, to be sure, but it would hardly be worth being bothered by, and they could both be far away from here within ten minutes or so.  But it really _has_ been a bitch of a day, on the other hand.  For Levi as much as himself, Kenny supposes.  

Kenny sighs and turns back to the woman, not quite believing himself.  “How much is your time worth?”  

Before she can reply, he amends the question.  “Not for me.  How much for you to watch the kid here for a few hours?”  

It’s rather a lot.  Kenny has the distinct feeling he’s being taken advantage of – Levi’s no trouble at all, and he’s fairly sure that the woman wouldn’t have just kicked the boy out to fend for himself if Kenny had never shown up – but Kenny had snagged the dead man’s wallet back in the alley, of course, so he decides that the expense can be written off as Levi’s share of the earnings.  

“Stay right here,” he warns as he’s leaving – even Kenny knows that dumping his young nephew on a strange prostitute, even for a short time, isn’t the greatest idea, but it’s not as if he’s going to just stand around and wait while Levi satisfies whatever need it is that’s being met here.  “I _will_ be back, in three – make that two hours, and if anything’s happened to him…” He decides not to finish the thought. The woman doesn’t seem like the bad sort, as much as that kind of thing can be judged on such short notice, and too specific a threat might just wind up souring the deal unnecessarily.  “I’ll be back,” he repeats.  

Levi doesn’t even acknowledge the fact that he’s leaving, unsurprisingly.  All of his attention is turned towards the dark-haired woman, gaze softer than Kenny can ever remember seeing it. 

When Kenny returns after a couple of antsy hours spent drifting around the neighborhood, both the kids are asleep, a tangle of skinny arms and legs on top of the blankets.  Levi’s friend is still not particularly warm towards Kenny, especially for someone who’s just been able to spend an evening as an extremely overpaid babysitter thanks to him.  Levi’s hand looks as though it’s been unwrapped, inspected, and then bandaged up again – _nosy woman_ – but if anything bad’s happened in Kenny’s absence, there’s no sign of it.  

 Kenny fully expects Levi to resist leaving even now, but though it takes a few shakes to wake him, Levi lets himself be ushered out of the brothel without complaint.  

Out on the street he’s just as slow as before, though this time it’s easy to understand that he’s still half-asleep.  They’ve got a ways to go before they can rest for the night, so Kenny picks him up again, without even giving it a thought this time.

 


End file.
